Categories

Meta

Ok, so I know I’m a little behind, but I’m also not a total geek like all ya’ll think, but I just ended up watching The Hobbit movies for the first time.

Maybe I should change that up a bit. I saw the first and second Hobbit movies a ways back, but never ended up seeing the third, so when I say I just saw them, I mean I just saw them all together. Jeff and I watched part 1 friday, part 2 saturday, and part 3 last night!

The Hobbit Novel and Audio are Waaaayyyy Better

I think the problem isn’t that I didn’t like the movies. They were fine. They just weren’t epic. Ya know, in the way the whole LotR series movies were.

The book is way better, which shouldn’t really surprise anyone, because we all know The Hobbit is absolutely epic!

I love the way Tolkien invented the entire world, including multiple languages, and then mixed together a ton of different plot lines, that all interrelate and mix up and tie up. There’s nothing better!

I’ve read the hobbit book several times, and have listened to the audiobook even more. There’s something about the narration that makes the different characters come to life. Even with the huge Hollywood budgets, the movies still couldn’t compete with some simple, high quality voice-acting.

Favorite Clip: Hobbit Movie 1

Even though they could have been better, I of course still have my favorite clips. From the first movie, I loved the scene when the dwarfs show up at Bilbo’s house unannounced, and Bilbo struggles to deal with it. I’m a little surprised this didn’t get picked as the opening scene, since it does open up the book, but it’s still a great clip!

Favorite Clip: Hobbit Movie 2

IN the second movie, The Desolation of Smaug, I love the scene when Bilbo sneaks into the cavern of gold and accidentally wakes up the dragon. I love how he tries to talk his way out of it, while still searching for the Arkenstone.

Favorite Clip: Hobbit Movie 3

Last but certainly not least, is the war scene from The Battle of Five Armies. Here’s the extended edition clip, which draws out the battle, one of the best done special effects scenes in the whole series!

I Just got finished reading the Harry Potter series for the second time, so thought I’d share a little research I dug up about author JK Rowling and the series.

JK Rowling – A Biography

JK Rowling is perhaps one of the most inspirational authors of modern era, and thanks to her creation of the best-selling Harry Potter series, she’s managed to cement herself as one of the most successful writers to have ever lived.

Born in Yate, Gloucestershire – she originally worked in London as a researcher and secretary for Amnesty International. It was during this time that the concept of Harry Potter came to her, and despite struggling to survive while living in relative poverty, she managed to have the first part of the Harry Potter series published in 1997 – 7 years after the original concept was born.

The growing success of her first published novel inspired her to continue the series – with the creation of six sequels, ending with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow in 2007 – a full 10 years since her first book was published.

During this time the Harry Potter series was translated into a hugely successful film series, which brought international acclaim to both the movies and the books, and catapulted JK Rowling to permanent stardom.

These days, itís estimated that her fortunes lies in excess of £560 million, easily making her one of the most successful authors of all time – and solidifying her real life ërags to richesí story. Whatís more, she also well known for her charity support, with a particular focus on Comic Relief, Lumos, and One Parent Families.

Overall, itís safe to say that JK Rowling has been one of the most important and influential writers in the last 100 years, and her continued success seems inevitable thanks to the creation of further works like The Casual Vacancy. Additionally, she also writes under the pen name of Robert Galbraith – which allows her to write new works under entirely different genres – still with great critical acclaim.

Yes, I know I’m a few months behind, but this past weekend I finally had a chance to watch the Fifty Shades of Grey movie!

This series is one that I really enjoyed. Though it’s hard for me to identify on an individual level with some of the themes that James talks about in the trilogy, and especially some of the darker sexual themes, it was powerful to me because I had a friend who struggled with many of those issues, and I felt the Fifty Shades books summed up her experience in a very vivid way.

The movie didn’t do quite the same job as I’d hoped though. Leave it to Hollywood to take a good book and forget to include many of the elements that made it so great! Instead, on screen this just turned into an almost goth-love story with self-deprecation mixed in.

I felt like they missed many of the finer elements of the characters that made the books so interesting, and instead just focused on creating controversial sex scenes.

That’s life in Hollywood I guess. I’m hoping that the other two movies that are scheduled to come out this year and next year do a better job than the first! Otherwise, the entire series might get dragged down and become nothing more than a pop-lit craze, rather than the modern classic it deserves to be.

If you haven’t had a chance to read the books yet, I strongly recommend you read all three of the original novels before watching even the first film. They’re so much better, and you’ll have an existing understanding of what’s really going on, and can hopefully understand the characters of the film that much better.

If you haven’t found them yet, you can download the Fifty Shades of Grey audiobook to listen to the original EL James novel, or you can download the trilogy in pdf form here.

If you have read the books but haven’t seen the movie, it’s still worth your time. Here’s a short preview of what you can expect:

I remind you that you can find my feasts recipes in the left column on my blog under the tongue translator, to “‘treat yourself, the list is”

Today, I had Talia from 7.30 am to 18h in the meantime I made this dish was really good, I put the recipe and then I’m going to rest
I would try to go tomorrow on blogs, but I will surely go with my mom